Grey Highlands council may see a pay increase in the near future, after a report on remuneration was presented to council Feb. 16.
The report by Grey Highland’s Council Remuneration Advisory Committee recommends base salary increases for council members, as well as pension contributions and health benefits, among other proposed changes.
“We wanted to recognize and fairly compensate council members for the responsibility of the position and the job that they do,” said committee chair Brian McCulloch. “We made salary recommendations that provide equity and other incentives to attract the best candidates to participate in a public sector organization.”
McCulloch said other municipalities have been going through remuneration reviews, which gave the committee guidance in its recommendations.
“Other municipalities have been going through the same exercise as we have, and some of these folks [have] hired professional consultants to review standards, do market checks and make recommendations,” he said. “This gave the committee a wide range of data and comparator groups to examine.”
Barring small amendments in 2019 and 2020, the current council remuneration policy has been in effect since 2009.
The committee’s work dates back to 2019, but was put on hold through the pandemic before resuming in 2021. Its recommendations for remuneration use 2019 as its base year.
Some of the changes being proposed are as follows:
- An increase in the mayor’s base salary, from $16,547 to $39,500 per year
- An increase in the deputy mayor’s base salary, from $11,268 to $29,500 per year
- An increase in councillors’ base salary, from $8,288 to $22,500 per year
- Considerable reductions in per diem pay and added salary for all three positions
- That a contribution of 9% of a council member’s base salary is made to an RRSP
- That council members receive health benefits
- That the mayor receive up to a maximum of $4,500 per year for attending up to three conferences, and that all other members receive up to $3000 per year for attending up to two conferences
The proposed changes, if adopted, would see the mayor’s total compensation drop from $62,818 in 2019 to an estimated $57,717.
The deputy mayor position would see its total compensation increase, from $43,667 in 2019 to an estimated $46,267.
Councillor positions would also see their total compensation increase, from an average of $24,104 in 2019 to an estimated $36,977.
With that said, the proposed compensation rates also include $1,000 per year in training, as well as other benefits that are not directly paid to council members.
Council members were generally receptive to the proposed changes.
Coun. Danielle Valiquette and Deputy Mayor Aakash Desai argued that the compensation increase would encourage more people to consider careers in municipal politics.
“I want to thank you for the inclusion of the pension matching and the health benefits. I know councillors give up some of those benefits, which they would receive in a normal job,” said Desai. “I also feel that this does allow for a more diverse group of people to run for council and to consider municipal politics as a career choice.”
“We need a diversity that sits at this table, and I believe that when you sign up to do something for four years, you need to know what that means from a monetary perspective,” said Valiquette.
Coun. Paul Allen wished the report more clearly delineated what would be paid directly to councillors and what would not.
“When people look at a report, they quite often go to the bottom line and they see a number, [and] they don't take into consideration that some of it is for technology, some is conference, some is training, some is having a phone where people can email us 24/7,” he said. “So I do think that the actual money that council members receive should be separated from tools that we are provided with to do our job.”
Council moved to defer the item to a future committee of the whole meeting for further discussion, with the goal of making a decision prior to the 2022 municipal election nomination period, which opens on May 2.
